Experiencing God Through Prayer by Madame Guyon
The
reader finds on page nine that God delights when we come to Him in simple,
childlike confidence.
Madame Guyon teaches this simple truth and
childlike confidence. We must learn to pray from our heart, not from our head.
She explains how to sit quietly (while being active) and wait on God.
“I would emphasis my statement to you-you
are called to enjoy God-not only His gifts to you…
The whole desire of our heavenly Father is
to give Himself to every creature according to the capacity in which we will
receive Him.”
This is a small book of only 90 pages, yet
it is difficult to try to limit the wisdom and knowledge to just one page.
Starting on page 31 of chapter 7
The Bitter and the Sweet reads:
“Be patient, dear ones, during
suffering. It was through His suffering on Calvary that Jesus gave the greatest
display of love.
Don't be like those who give
themselves to Jesus at one season only to withdraw from Him at another. They
give themselves to Him only to be caressed, yet when in times of trouble, they
turn back to man for consolation.
No, beloved friends, you will
not find consolation in anything other than the love of the cross and total
abandonment. If you will not savor the cross you cannot savor the things of
God. (See Matthew 16:23).
It is impossible to love God
without loving the cross. If you savor the cross, you will find even the most
bitter things to be sweet.
‘To the hungry soul every
bitter thing is sweet’ (Proverbs 27:7), because it finds itself hungering for
God in the same proportion as it is hungering for the cross...
Jesus Christ Himself chose to
endure the utmost severity of the cross...
(John 14:6) Abandon [surrender] yourself then in Jesus.
Follow Him as the way. Wait for Him to reveal truth to you. Allow Him to
animate us with life.
Abandonment [surrender] is the
means God uses to reveal His mysteries to us.
To bear all the marks of Jesus
Christ is much greater than merely meditating on them. Paul said, ‘I bear in my
body the marks of the Lord Jesus’ (Gal 6:17). He does not say he merely thought
about them, he says he bore them.
As you abandon yourselves to
Jesus, He will reveal those marks to you. You have no choice but to reach after
Him. Dwell with Him. Sink into nothingness before Him.
Accept indiscriminately all His
gifts whether sweetness or bitterness. Let nothing retard your course for even
one moment...
If you sincerely love God, you
will love all that belongs to Him.”
In another chapter we read, “The only
genuine means of bringing about change is by inward means. You must commit
yourself wholly into the hands of a loving God. The simple act of commitment in
every circumstance where self exerts itself will, in time, produce a separation
of the sensual from the spiritual…
The nearer your spirit draws to God, the
further you become separated from the soulish demands…
God himself will show you the areas of your
life which need attention. Those who are
faithfully abandoning all to God will indeed be purified, polished, and
perfected in His timing…”
A quote from the chapter entitled Matters
of the Heart. “Sin takes possession of the soul deficient in faith and
prayer. If we would but teach our wandering brethren to simply believe and
diligently pray, rather than engaging them in endless reasoning's, we would lead
them sweetly into the arms of God.” And for references Madame Guyon gives Psalm
19:7, 119:130; Matthew 19:14, 11:25.
Other chapter titles include: Thirsting
For God, Scriptural Meditation, Surviving Dry Periods, Distractions, Put Off
The Old, The Reward of Silence.
Could our goals in life, our aim for class members, this book and the
other resources we use as tools be:
“To teach man to seek God in his heart, to
think of Him, to return to Him whenever he has wandered, and to have a single
eye to please Him, is leading that person to the source of all grace. There he
will find everything necessary for sanctification…
Teach the young to pray, not by reasoning or
by method or by understanding, but by the prayer from the heart-the prayer of
God’s Spirit rather than man’s invention…
There is no better way to learn how to love
God than to simply love Him.”
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